Library budget

Dear Greg,

Thanks for your April 20th story on the Library budget, and for incorporating my remarks. You included two key points in your story:

Wesleyan has the highest acquisition budget of any of the 68 schools in the Oberlin Group, an organization of the academic libraries from many of the outstanding liberal arts colleges in the United States.

The Wesleyan Library acquisitions expenditure is budgeted to grow at a rate of 5% per year, among the highest growth rates projected for any discretionary category at Wesleyan. The only discretionary category with a higher projected increase is financial aid, which is expected to grow at 5.5%.

I think this picture is inconsistent with the headline “Periodicals Pinch. Administration Slashes Library Budget.” I would like to clarify that there is no budget cut, and there is no budget freeze. Our librarians are working with academic departments to evaluate our periodicals holdings, in the hope of cutting some under-utilized journals and applying those expenditures to find new, potentially more inclusive, access opportunities.

Thanks,

Joe Bruno